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An immigration judge extended parole Wednesday for twice-deported Mexican activist Elvira Arellano, who famously took refuge in a Chicago church when she faced removal in 2006. NBC 5's Kye Martin reports.

(Published Wednesday, March 15, 2017)

An immigration judge extended parole Wednesday for twice-deported Mexican activist Elvira Arellano, who famously took refuge in a Chicago church when she faced removal in 2006.

Arellano’s probation for violating immigration law was set to expire Wednesday, but the legal victory will allow her and her 3-year-old Mexican-born son Emiliano to remain in the country for another year alongside her U.S.-born son, 18-year-old Saul Arellano.

"She has fought for me and now its time for me to give to her," Saul said at a news conference Wednesday. "She went against a whole government because she believed that she needed to be with her son. And now I believe I need to be with my mother here."

Arellano, 42, was first deported to Mexico after attempting to use fraudulent documents to enter the United States on Aug. 20, 1997, but illegally reentered the country later that year.

She settled in Yakima, Washington, and she gave birth to Saul in 1999. Arellano moved to Chicago in 2000 and was arrested by ICE agents at O’Hare International Airport in 2002 as part of Operation Tarmac, a massive crackdown on airport employees living in the U.S. illegally.

In 2006, she faced deportation once again and sought refuge at the Adalberto United Methodist Church in the city’s Humboldt Park neighborhood with her U.S.-born son, making headlines around the world as she pledged to remain in America.

Arellano lived in the church for nearly a year and became a symbol for the new sanctuary movement, in which undocumented immigrants residing in the country illegally seek shelter at places of worship.

Despite her efforts and the national attention given to her case, Arellano was deported again on Aug. 19, 2007, nearly 20 years to the day after she was first removed from the country.

Arellano’s advocacy for immigrants seeking asylum continued in Mexico, where she had Emiliano. In 2014, she reentered the U.S. and was placed into removal proceedings by Customs and Border Protection and turned over to ICE.

She was paroled out of ICE custody pending her ongoing removal proceedings in federal immigration court, in which she continues to seek political asylum in the U.S. based on her outspoken criticisms of the Mexican government.